Press: Shift From Tropical to Practical

A century ago, when newcomers to San Diego brought their East Coast, Southern and Midwest gardening standards with them, they planted lawns, propagated tropical flowers and voted for waterworks to make it possible to grow almost anything in this “Heaven on Earth,” as city founder Alonzo Horton liked to call San Diego.

The latest crop of awards from the local chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects demonstrates that this water-intensive ethic is on its way out.

Campus Pointe, the 24-acre life-sciences office complex east of Interstate 5 and north of Genesee Avenue, won the top President’s Award for a “plant palette as rich as it can get,” said the jurors.